Around the Big 12 in Baseball: Kansas Beat Texas, and Other Joys In Life

This weekend in Big 12 baseball provided some truly head-scratching results. TCU took two off West Virginia! Oklahoma State swept Oregon State! Kansas beat Texas (and not just in football!)

Most teams have one series remaining. It’s put up or shut up time. Let’s take a trip down the standings.

Baylor (32-13, 14-6 Big 12): The Bears have a half-game lead over Texas Tech thanks to a scheduling quirk. Baylor’s final game against Texas, originally scheduled for April 7, was cancelled and never made up. The two teams split the first two games, so it’s not like the outcome was predetermined or anything. Seems strange!

Anyway. Baylor went 2-1 against Kansas State last weekend, dropping the final game 10-3 at home. The Bears are off this week, and finish up at Oklahoma State on May 16-18.

Texas Tech (33-14, 14-7 Big 12): Tech is half a game back of Baylor, something you would already know if you’d read two paragraphs up. The Red Raiders swept Oklahoma and are riding an eight-game conference win streak. The last team to beat Tech was, uh, UT-Rio Grande Valley (go Vipers!), which won 6-3 in Lubbock.

Tech has a doubleheader against Florida International Tuesday, and will be off for a week until hosting TCU for the final series of the regular season.

This is also as good a time as any to congratulate Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt on becoming the richest man in Lubbock. And now that Kliff Kingsbury is gone, Hocutt’s probably the most handsome, too!

Oklahoma State (28-16, 10-8 Big 12): The Cowboys took a break from Big 12 play to put a whoopin’ on Oregon State, sweeping the Beavers in Corvallis. It was an impressive turnaround for Oklahoma State, which had just been swept by Tech the weekend prior.

Now the Cowboys will face Oklahoma in a three-game series this weekend that is apparently being played at three ballparks across the state. Game One is in Tulsa, Game Two is in OKC and Game Three is in Norman. What, could they not find a field at WinStar and play another game there?

Oklahoma State will wrap up May 16-18 against Baylor at home.

West Virginia (28-17, 11-10 Big 12): TCU came in to Morgantown and wrecked West Virginia’s weekend. Friday night was apparently “Happy Hour and Baseball Bingo” night at Monongalia County Ballpark; I hope somebody had “TCU scores 10+ runs” on their bingo card!

But the Mountaineers salvaged the series a bit with a win in the final game on Sunday, and West Virginia has a favorable series at Kansas State this weekend to close out Big 12 play. WVU will end its regular season with a three game series against George Washington — that’s the school, not the president.

Oklahoma (30-18, 8-10 Big 12): The Sooners lead a group of three teams all bundled at 8-10 in the conference. Oklahoma was swept by Tech last weekend, losing by a combined score of 25-13 and tumbling down into a tie for fifth in the conference standings.

This weekend won’t be easier for the Sooners, who play red-hot Oklahoma State. A closing series against Texas, however, should be a welcome respite for Oklahoma (and no, teams eagerly looking forward to playing Texas will not stop being funny.)

TCU (26-20, 8-10 Big 12): Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in.

TCU exploded for 14 runs in the first game against West Virginia and won the series 2-1, rising up into a tie for fifth in the conference and building some momentum heading into the final stretch of the season. Maybe it’s a dead-cat bounce, who knows. The Frogs still have a ton of work to do if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.

That work begins this weekend, when TCU hosts Kansas. If the Frogs can sweep that series, they’ll be above .500 in the Big 12 before traveling to the outer reaches of the universe — i.e., Lubbock — to play Tech in the final series of the season.

Kansas (26-21, 8-10 Big 12): Kansas swept Texas! To the OrangeBloods forums we go!

That’s just good old fashioned fun. Thanks for everything you do, Kansas.

The Jayhawks play TCU this weekend in a series that could make me look like a real moron for mocking Texas just now. They’ll in the season in the interestingly branded “Dillons Sunflower Showdown” against Kansas State May-19.

Kansas State (23-26, 7-11 Big 12): The Wildcats won one game against Baylor last weekend, which is about as good as could be expected. They’ll welcome Texas Southern this Tuesday and host West Virginia this weekend.

I don’t have much else to say about Kansas State baseball.

Texas (25-25, 6-14 Big 12): Bonus OrangeBloods!

Well, of course those aren’t the best players he found. It’s just that the best ones he found are playing for Tech and TCU right now.

Texas plays Texas State Tuesday and Incarnate Word next Tuesday before ending its season against Oklahoma. I’d say those are easy warm-up games for the Longhorns, but they lost to Texas State 7-6 earlier this season.